Shanghai is preparing for the building of three public service centers to
strengthen its position as a national technology base. The centers will provide
facilities for measuring, information about standards, and quality
testing. The facility will help China advance and upgrade its manufacturing
industry. Construction of the Shanghai Assessment Center, a
150,000-square-meter project at the Pudong Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park, is nearing
completion, with the frame construction of its nine-storey office building
finished. The center, a 1 billion yuan (US$192 million) investment, is
scheduled to start operation at the end of year for nano, biochemical,
environment and other advanced scientific fields. Currently, the center is
bringing in world-class measuring facilities. The Shanghai Institute
of Standardization, a second service center, opened last year to help building
standards. By April, the institute's online service system had received
560,000 visitors and provided 224,000 pieces of standard information to
companies from across the nation. Construction of the institute's second-phase
will start in June a system to automaticly track and alarm the world's
technological barriers.As well, the city is establishing a comprehensive
quality testing base -- a third public service center -- by recombining its
existing product quality testing systems for the automatic, electron, chemical,
light industry and food sectors as well as adding other testing centers.
Upon completion, the center will be the biggest of its type nationwide,
containing more than 20 national quality-testing centers.